It failed

[meriad]

I really was hoping it wouldn't but given it is 13 years old and I haven't been all that good with the servicing I probably shouldn't be overly surprised.

What failed it is a rear brake imbalance. Not sure what that entails - I've googled it but am not much wiser about it all. I just hope it's a fairly simple repair to do

[debih]

Oh dear.

I don't know what rear brake imbalance is - hopefully it is something that can be rectified cheaply.

I haven't bothered ringing about mine yet. I know its going to be ridiculously expensive (thank god for our windfall - because of that I'm really not stressing out about the price. In a way, its sort of free!).

[Workingman]

Ria, rear brake imbalance is an inequality in the force needed to slow/lock the wheel - one side is braking harder than the other. I am assuming that on a 13 yr old car the rear brakes are drums not discs. It could most likely be down to a few things.

1. An air bubble or leak in the hydraulic line to one side. If there is a leak the oil could have got into the brake shoe material.

2. More wear on the brake shoes on one side.

3. A seized or stuck adjuster for the brake shoes.

None of them are a big job. A cylinder and shoes should only cost a few quid, and a bit of WD40 and freeing the adjuster only pennies.

[tonicha]

Oh what a pain - sure WM is right and it's not a major or expensive repair.

[meriad]

thanks for that Frank - I hope Kwikfit read this post!

[Workingman]

Do you have a local garage which does repairs for local people and gets good reports?

It might be worth dropping in if you do. You have a bit of ammo to take with you.....

[meriad]

Not that I know of Frank. To be honest the garage I take it to isn't the cheapest anyway; so I may as well just get it over and done with at Kwikfit and have a totally legal car back on the road as of this afternoon. I probably could save a bit of money on the repair if I shopped around, but the problem with most of the local places is that I would struggle to get to work on time / back as there isn't a good (if any) public transport connection so I'd need to cab it and then that defeats the object of somewhere cheaper. At least where it is now only costs me £5.00 extra on the train fare

[meriad]

Just to add that my current MOT expires on Saturday so I don't really have lots of time either. I was waiting for payday (yesterday) before booking it in you see

[TheOstrich]

Sorry you had the failure, meriad, but as WM says, hopefully it sounds like it won't be too ruinous to put right .....

[debih]

Mine passed. It needed two new bulbs and I have been told that it will need a new front tyre soon but other than that all was fine.

They have changed the drive shaft but haven't taken it for a test drive as the petrol light came on and so they didn't take it out. Plonkers. Why on earth didn't they put £10 in and add that to the bill.

So I will pick it up in about an hour and take it up on the tops - I need to get it up to 50mph to see if the problem has been fixed. The mechanic still said he was dubious that it was the drive shaft causing the problems but Honda were adamant that it was when they test drove. We shall see later!

I haven't dared ask how much the bill is.